Warchild

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Remember, remember the 5th of November.

Summary: The futuristic tale unfolds in a Great Britain that's a fascist state. A freedom fighter known as V (Weaving) uses terrorist tactics to fight the oppressive society. He rescues a young woman (Portman) from the secret police, and she becomes his unlikely ally.

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: English, French

Comments: How can you escape...if they can see everything?

Summary:































A confined setting is a useful tool for thriller-makers, and "Vacancy" is definitely boxed in: a rundown motel way, way off the Interstate, the kind of place where unsuspecting movie characters go to get stabbed to death in the shower. If "Vacancy" doesn't quite live up to its Hitchcockian forbears, at least it provides 80 minutes of well-designed mayhem. You know somebody's paying attention just from the opening credits, a clever vortex with pounding music by Paul Haslinger. Then we meet unhappy couple Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale, driving along in the dark and forced to stay at the Pinewood Motel after a car breakdown. There's a night man (Frank Whaley, decadent) in the tradition of Dennis Weaver's "Touch of Evil" gargoyle, but the real mess of trouble is waiting in room number 4. Director Nimrod Antal, who scored a stylish international hit with the Hungarian thriller "Kontroll", squeezes maximum juice out of the Route 66 atmosphere of the motel, although the movie doesn't get under your skin the way "Kontroll" did. Wilson and Beckinsale are a little too marquee-namish for this kind of heavy-breathing work, and the script doesn't give them much to play with. But hey, it's not that kind of movie. Where it really belongs is on the top half of a drive-in double bill, or maybe as a nightmare-scenario TV movie from the Seventies. Either way, it works. --"Robert Horton"




Stills from "Vacancy" (click for larger image)

















More " Vacancy " on Amazon.com

























Vacancy on Blu-ray






Avoid Travel Disasters









By the Director

Sound: Dolby

Comments: These are the TALONS of The Vampire Bat (original ad)

Summary: When the villagers of Klineschloss start dying of blood loss, the town fathers suspect a resurgence of vampirism. While police inspector Karl remains skeptical, scientist Dr. von Niemann cares for the vampire's victims one by one, and suspicion falls on simple-minded Herman Gleib because of his fondness for bats. A blood-thirsty mob hounds Gleib to his death, but the vampire attacks don't stop.

Comments: with Nobody Knows, Neighbor 13, The Bird People Of China, Where A Good Man Goes

Summary:

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: When the Sun Sets... The Hunt Begins
Banpaia hantâ D

Summary: It is many thousand years in the future. Vampires once ruled the night but have seen their numbers reduced by fearless bounty hunters. One such hunter is D, the halfbreed son of a human mother and vampire father. When a girl from a rich family is taken from her home by the vampire Meier Link, her father contracts both D and the Markus brothers (a rival group of hunters) to race to retrieve her. As the heroes fight their way through Meier's hired guards, they begin to suspect that the girl may have gone with him willingly.

Languages: Mandarin

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Summary: In 17th century Asia, "zombies roamed the lands," which in turn led to many vampires roaming the lands, because the zombies turned into vampires. Or so "Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters" would have us believe. This lively, wisecracking movie is a little short on narrative logic (actually, it's short on the kind of logic that leads one shot naturally into the next). But it has the staples of the Hong Kong ghost story, with plenty of gravity-defying fights and putrescent zombies. The prolific Tsui Hark wrote and produced this one, but decidedly did not lend his often thrilling directorial touch. Still, there are moments within the generally bewildering mayhem that soar: a zombie-vampire dragging a group of hunters by chains along the treetops, for instance. If you want to see what would happen if a Hammer Film were dropped into an acid bath, this is the movie for you. "--Robert Horton"

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish

Comments: For 100 years a war has raged between good and evil. It will end tonight.

Summary: Every now and again you get to see something old and new mixed together, with the "new" being strong enough to counteract the "old" which has been seen a number of times before. "Vampires: The Turning" is a case in point.

It's a familiar story: boy loses girl to a gang of vampires, and he's determined to get her back. The new turns to this story are an exotic setting (Thailand) and the guy turns himself into a vampire to get the extra boost needed to go toe-to-toe with the vampire bikers.

Film quality is surprisingly good. Cimeaphotography is top-notch, light work and camera angels add a real sense to the experience. Acting is also surprisingly good.

If you're a fan of John Carpenter's Vampire series, you'll enjoy this movie, though I'll stop short of saying it's a part of that series, like some have said.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles: Spanish, French

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Summary: "Van Helsing: The London Assignment" is a wild and clever animated prequel, slightly more than a half-hour, to the live-action hit film about 19th-century monster hunter Dr. Gabriel Van Helsing. Set just before actor Hugh Jackman's dark hero heads off for battle with Count Dracula in Eastern Europe, "The London Assignment" finds Van Helsing attempting to stop Dr. Jekyll, and the latter's terrifying associate, Mr. Hyde, from their bizarre and bloody quest to turn septuagenarian Queen Victoria into a lovelorn girl again. While the widescreen artistry is often brutal, it is also breathtaking, especially in a fantastic chase sequence involving train cars. Besides Jackman, several actors from the feature lend voices to their cartoon counterparts, including Robbie Coltrane (as Hyde), Alun Armstrong (as Cardinal Jinette), and David Wenhman (as sidekick Carl). Special features include an incisive interview with Jackman about his character. "--Tom Keogh"

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English, Dolby Digital 1.0; Spanish, Dolby Digital 1.0; French, Dolby Digital 1.0; Commentary by director Richard C. Sarafian, Unknown

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0

Comments: Tighten your seat belt. You never had a trip like this before.

Summary: Kowalski, the hero of the story, works for a car delivery service. He takes delivery of a 1970 Dodge Challenger to take from Colorado to Frisco, California. Shortly after pickup, he takes a bet to get the car there in less than 15 hours. After a few run-ins with motorcycle cops and highway patrol they start a chase to bring him into custody. Along the way, Kowalski is guided by Supersoul - a blind DJ with a police radio scanner. Throw in lots of chase scenes, gay hitchhikers, a naked woman riding a motorbike, lots of Mopar and you've got a great cult hit from the early 70's.

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Sound: MP3

Summary: Based on police records and a prize-winning book by Ryuzo Saki, VENGEANCE IS MINE chronicles the terrifying crime spree of Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata), a hollow man with no kokoro, which means either "self" or "heart" in Japanese. A dissatisfied public relations employee, Enokizu kills several people for no good reason and manages to evade the police, even though his face is plastered like a celebrity's image across the country. But the film is also about his father and his wife, who have a secret of their own and try to live with the knowledge of the terrible deeds Enokizu has committed.

Director Shohei Imamura created the film after making several documentaries in the early 1970s and becoming dissatisfied with the narrative constraints of the form. Seemingly a straightforward crime drama, VENGEANCE IS MINE incorporates several surrealistic touches, including an ending in which the laws of gravity are suspended. Ogata's performance as Enokizu transformed him into a star in Japan. Mitsuko Baisho's turn as Enokizu's taboo-breaking, long-suffering wife recalls the protean female characters common in Imamura's previous films, including THE INSECT WOMAN.

"The film is as beautiful as it is cold-hearted....The action is spring-loaded with malevolence."

- Uncut Staff (Uncut Film Critic), Uncut, 10/01/2005
"The director allows the subtlest of gestures to reveal his character's personalities and feelings. He is helped by remarkable actors..."

- James, Bell (Sight and Sound Critic), Sight and Sound, 11/01/2005

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: Based on the Thrilling novel and Saturday Evening Post serial by Luke Short

Summary: The charms of DVD sometimes passeth understanding. "Vengeance Valley" is an 83-minute B Western directed (barely) by the dullest of MGM hacks, Richard Thorpe, and based on one of the genre's hoariest formulas--the bad natural son (Robert Walker), the good foster son (Burt Lancaster), and the range empire they respectively imperil and rescue. Everyone on board was marking time: Walker, who otherwise spent 1951 playing Bruno Anthony in Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train", and who would be dead within the year; Lancaster, whose glum performance hints at neither the gusto of his early-'50s swashbucklers nor the fact that he would soon be collecting Oscar nominations; Joanne Dru (playing Walker's recent bride), who only a year earlier was working for John Ford; and screenwriter Irving Ravetch, who would draw a much more auspicious ranch-land assignment a decade later with "Hud" (1963). No, we can't make exalted claims for "Vengeance Valley"--but that's just the point: this is an absolutely typical slice of moviegoing life in 1951, and watching this DVD is as uncanny as a trip in a time machine. The aura is perfected by the true three-strip Technicolor print, not a latterday Eastmancolor approximation of the real thing. Throw in a supporting cast of such sagebrush perennials as John Ireland, Will Wright, Glenn Strange, Jim Hayward, and TV's Wyatt Earp-to-be, Hugh O'Brian, and you've got a quintessential Saturday at the Bijou. Now if only the "great" color films of the period could all look this good.... "-- Richard T. Jameson"

Comments: He Never Hurt A Soul Until The Day He Died.

Summary: After the town freak Ray Sawyer is killed in a freak accident involving voodoo related material, local teens' bodies soon start piling up. A few of the teens decide to visit a friends house in the swamps of Louisiana to find out if she knows what's going on, but they soon realize that Ray is possessed by evil spirits of murderers and evil souls and worser...Ray has found the teens and is armed with a crowbar. With only voodoo protecting them, the teens must survive his clutches or become his next victims...

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: The Giants Battle In The Biggest Spectacle Of Them All!

Summary: After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz. Ben and Erin find that the stagecoach is transporting US$ 3,000,000.00 in gold hidden below the seat and they scheme to steal it. Along their journey, betrayals and incidents happen changing their initial intentions.

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Comments: Witness a battle no one has ever seen

Summary: Deep within the mysterious Forest of Resurrection, a spectacular battle between good and evil has gone on since the dawn of time. When Prisoner KSC2-303 escapes from a maximum security facility, he enters the forest, believing it will lead him to safe haven. Instead, he finds himself a pawn in an endless struggle played out across multiple temporal planes of existence. His opponent: a mysterious man who seemingly cannot be killed. The battle to be waged: Good versus Evil in the pursuit of a beautiful woman who holds the key to eternal life. What Prisoner KSC2-303 cannot remember is whether or not he is the personification of good or the very essence of darkness

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; French, Dolby Digital 1.0; Italian, Dolby Digital 1.0; Spanish, Dolby Digital 1.0; German, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: A Hitchcock thriller. You should see it from the beginning!

Summary: John "Scottie" Ferguson is a retired San Francisco police detective who suffers from acrophobia and Madeleine is the lady who leads him to high places. A wealthy shipbuilder who is an acquaintance from college days approaches Scottie and asks him to follow his beautiful wife, Madeleine. He fears she is going insane, maybe even contemplating suicide, because she believes she is possessed by a dead ancestor. Scottie is skeptical, but agrees after he sees the beautiful Madeleine.

Sound: MP3

Comments: Look after those that look after you F*ck off those that f*ck off you

Summary:

Comments: You can bury your past, but you can never escape it...

Summary:

Languages: Japanese, Unknown

Subtitles: English

Sound: MP3

Summary:

Sound: AAC

Comments: It's a dirty job

Summary: "Vice" is a low budget cop noir movie where everyone is flawed, corrupt and/or dying.
It tries to be another "LA Confidential" or even "Street Kings" but falls short due to its simple characters and sets and limited plot.

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Comments: Something strange is in the tea at Shannon's party, and murder will be served on the side.

Summary: An aspiring actress is asked by the police to help them solve a murder case by portraying the victim who was a popular beauty queen. But each time she reenacts the part, she experiences the victim's terror and sufferings at the hands of her tormenters. This draws her into trying to unlock the mystery behind the tragic death, but the closer she gets to the truth, the greater the danger to her own life…

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Muk lau hung gwong

Summary: A computer engineer is kidnapped and tortured. Since then, his girlfriend senses he's no longer the same person, and becomes convinced that something supernatural is corrupting his soul. The cop assigned to the case is also determined to get to the bottom of the case. The truth is more frightening than either had anticipated...

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0

Comments: First it controlled her mind, then it destroyed her body... Long live the new flesh!

Summary: Max runs a TV channel, and is looking for new material to show...he discovers - Videodrome. His girlfriend, Nicki Brand, goes to audition for Videodrome, and Max gets drawn into the underlying plot which uses Videodrome as its front.